Chua Ek Kay was a member of the pioneering batch of post-war Chinese immigrant artists in Singapore who—while rooted in Chinese ink—were equally engaged in contemporary expression. Chua’s distinctive style blended traditional Chinese ink painting styles with Western theories and techniques, creating paintings charged with energy, emotion and keen poetic sensibility. He became the first Chinese ink painter to win the UOB Painting of the Year Award in 1991. In 1999, he received the Cultural Medallion for his contribution to visual arts in Singapore.

Born in Guangdong, China on 21 Nov 1947, Chua Ek Kay moved to Singapore as a child with his family in the 1950s, and settled down in Liang Seah Street. He loved the arts growing up, and was always listening to music and reading Chinese literature and poetry. As a student in Catholic High School, he was known for his ability to recite Chinese poetry from memory.

However, being the eldest of seven children in a non-affluent family, Chua did not pursue his literary and artistic interests seriously after graduating. Instead he took on a variety of jobs to add to the family income, only buying himself a guitar with money from his first job. It was not until 1975 that a 28-year-old Chua decided to learn traditional Chinese ink painting and seal carving from master Shanghai School ink painter Fan Chang Tien. Along the way, Chua was influenced and found inspiration in the work of Chinese art historian and painter Huang Binhong, and in the work of pioneering Singapore Nanyang artists such as Cheong Soo Pieng.

A decade later in 1985, he resigned from his job as a manager of a garment factory to practice art full-time, while he worked part-time as a lecturer at the National University of Singapore’s Extramural Studies Department to support his passion.

Chua believed that to be a good artist, one not only had to have a good traditional foundation in art, one also should be well-read and possess a cultured soul. He read voraciously, listened to music and played his guitar, finding inspiration in classical poetry, books and music. He channeled his creative energies into painting and, three years later in 1988, held his first exhibition at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, featuring a selection of Chinese brush paintings and calligraphy.

For inspiration, Chua also explored old and new physical and mental landscapes, finding inspiration in the Chinese cultural influences and street scenes of his childhood, and in existing street scenes with old shophouses juxtaposed against contemporary urbanised settings. He also explored natural landscapes as well as forms of art that were new to him such as Aboriginal Australian cave art and Western art. He became deeply fascinated by the new avenues of thought, approach and technique that Western art offered and found similarities between the Shanghai School of ink painting and the Western art of Matisse, Picasso and Jackson Pollock.

Fired by his developing interest, he decided to go back to school in 1990 and enrolled in LASALLE College of the Arts to study Western painting. During 1994 to 1995, he pursued further art studies at the University of Tasmania, where he received a Bachelors in Fine Art, and the University of Western Sydney where he attained a master's degree.

When Chua returned to Singapore, he created one of his most famous works and his own personal favourite, Song of Cicada (1996). A large five-panel work inspired by the Tasmanian scenery, it showcased Chua’s impactful new voice merging his Chinese roots and Buddhist beliefs with Western influences. The work’s large expanse of space punctuated by a few falling autumnal leaves was a potent and symbolic visual poem that invited audiences to imagine and contemplate.

Over the decades, Chua held seven solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions. He painted many scenes of old Singapore, featuring old shophouses, alleyways and other scenes from Singapore’s old quarters which were disappearing in a rapidly urbanising nation, often depicting in Chinese ink the places he had lived in or visited with nostalgia and deep feeling. He also painted scenes of natural beauty, depicting mountains, lakes and lotuses with a poetic sensibility. Many of his paintings were guided by his Buddhist leanings, portraying the essence of things rather than offering physical representation, evoking both energy and emotion in a subtle yet powerful way.

Chua’s artistic excellence was recognised over the years. He became the first Chinese ink painter to win the UOB Painting of the Year Award in 1991 and won the Juror’s Choice award at the Philip Morris Group of Companies ASEAN Art Awards in 1998. In 1999, he received the Cultural Medallion for his contributions to visual arts in Singapore.

Chua passed away on 8 Feb 2008. A month later on 18 March, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts held a roundtable session Remembering Chua Ek Kay: Ink Painting and the Idea of the Contemporary. On 17 May, the Singapore Art Museum and the Singapore Management University held a memorial service for Chua, at which his widow Mdm Yeo Yang Kwee unveiled two of Chua’s untitled paintings and donated a representative collection of his works to the Singapore Art Museum.

Chua’s legacy continues to influence and inspire artists, and can also be glimpsed at Clarke Quay MRT station. His artworks from his The Reflections series adorn the walls of the station, presenting a multi-faceted portrait of the Singapore River throughout Singapore history in different mediums. His life as an artist was documented in the film Being and Becoming Chua Ek Kay, which had its premiere screening at the Singapore Art Museum on 6 Mar 2013.